Dwelling Place

Psalm 90:1

LORD, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.

Been meditating this one simple scripture for the whole morning. It's common how we usually get too accustomed to particular truth of the Word that we forgot to chew more and sink deeper in the truth.

As usual, I used to read the whole passage, particularly in Psalm. Jump from one verse to another verse. But today, this opening of Moses' prayer really caught me on the spot.

LORD in this verse in the source language is 'Adonay' which means Master. This is one of the term which express God's character and role in our life. Master. Lord. More than just Saviour. In our walk with God, there are many characteristics of God which we ought (means will, if we haven't) to experience through our daily lives. It's one thing to look up in the Bible, reading the character of God or studying the name of God (which reflects His character in the end), but it's a different thing to experience Him as He is in our real lives. The question is have we experience Him as our Master? Perhaps better rephrased: Have we allowed Him to be our Master? Master in our daily lives, in our choices, in our attitude, in our words, in our deeds, in our thoughts, in our feelings--in short, in our whole existences.

Now, the truth above play a major role in the rest meaning of the verse. LORD, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. We're all know what dwelling place means. A place to live in; residence;house; abode. Home. What really interesting here is the word in all generations. In Hebrew, the word for generations here could also mean dwelling-place, habitation. Now, if it is read with the another meaning from the translation, it may paraphrased like this:

Master, You have been our dwelling place in all dwelling-place... You have been our home in all habitation.

Not that the fact that God has been faithful to be our refuge throughout the generations of the believers is not true. But apparently there is something more than just the truth about God's faithfulness in this verse. It was experiencing Him as a dwelling place, no matter where we are or stay, in our relationship with Him as Master.

How can we experience God as a dwelling place (read: home) while we view Him as our Master?

After the Fall, humankind have had difficulties in having the right perspective about God. Especially in term of Someone who is superior. Some of us have difficulties in regarding God as a Loving Father, because we never have an earthly father who shows love to us. This tainted our image about our God as a Father. Even more difficult to that is viewing God as a Loving yet Just Master. For the humankind which has suffer a long term of injustice slavery, a word Master still haunted us to this day. In our hearts we want to be free, we hate to be slaves. And we thought having a Master will certainly bring us into a slavery, a state which seemed unfavorable to all mankind. Is it so with God?

Before I'm getting too far into the arguments of master-slavery relationship facts, I just want to say that same as the tainted image of God as a father, we also have a perverted definition about master and slave relationship. That has become an issue in our relationship with God. I don't know about you, but for me, calling God (and of course, really regarding Him in my heart and attitude) as my Master is not easy-quick change after I was born again. There are many issues involved. Trust is #1. Following Him with total surrender, means THOROUGH ABANDONMENT. Struggles and doubts are not uncommon. Want a simple example? God wants us to be honest, but in many situations we found ourselves so easily compromising in our talks. (And we give a beautiful name to that = white lies). Now when we have done wrong, God in His great grace give a way out. Confess your sin (which right away our 'intelligent' mind take over the arguments= but it was for good, if not it will be worse, or... I don't have other options, etc.--add as you like), ask for forgiveness, ask God to cleanse us, and the last yet not the least part, confess the truth to those we have lied to, when God told us to. (OK--I'm just experience this, for a 'white lie' on Saturday night, took me a period till Monday afternoon to confess to another party who has being lied to. Thanks to God--the outcome is not as bad as I imagine before. God, please forgive me for not trusting You wholly.) Calling God as our MASTER requires that, not sometimes, but all the time. The good news is, no matter how often we failed Him, His grace is sufficient for us to repent and start all over again :D Now, that's what I called a True Master. Full of grace and mercy, yet is righteous and just. I do hope this little example could give a better picture for you to view this relationship.

As I learn this part of my relationship with God, the Word of God say that He is Our refuge no matter where we are. This mean that we can only tap into the reality of experiencing God as our Shelter after we make Him our Master. I'm still growing in this lesson, but I do challenge anyone who read this blog to really put this to test. Why don't you try it with your life, just in simple things (like telling the truth ALL the time)? I believe you will experience God is TRULY a Shelter, a Refuge, a HOME you've been searching for...

I give this invitation because I have experienced it myself. I'm not giving you my promise, I'm just restated His promise, which myself has experienced over and over again--I do hope and pray that by the grace of God, I could continue on this path. I have to add, our knowledge about Him will grow, as we walk in obedience to HIM. We obey Him because He is our Master. You obey your master. And the motivation is not afraid of the bad consequences if we're not willing to obey. But really, the motivation is TRUST and LOVE. Now that it's something that needs God's grace and revelation to understand. Obeying your Master out of love and trust. (OK, further explanations maybe covered in another posts ;P)

When we experience God as our true home, we don't have to fear the instability of place change or any other change. There is a very popular adage in regarding to change which people often quote to endorse change or to cope with the inconvenience of change :

Nothing endures but change.--Heraclitus (540 BC - 480 BC), from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers

Though it may be true for the facts of life, but when we have found God as our home, we found that stability, that security, that fulfillment that we've been searching and longing for all this time. Because in life, besides change, God stays the same. He is the same yesterday, today, tomorrow.(Hebrew 13 :8) We may be experiencing relocation--planned or unplanned, change-- wanted or unwanted, even to the extreme of none (like suddenly losing everything, homeless, penniless, etc.). But when we found Him as our home, we won't be homeless anymore. To get into that point, and to stay in that state, is a constant preserved relationship with Him as our Master.